Young women speak out on lack of participation

Young women from Luveve high density suburb met at the Luveve Youth Centre to interrogate the reasons for poor participation of young women in national and local developmental and political processes.

 The young women highlighted  parental consent as a major challenge to their effective participation, saying that they needed to explain to their parents how such programmes are of benefit to them before being allowed to attend, if at all they are allowed. This, they said does not usually apply to their male counterparts.

“It is difficult for us to participate in national processes and general activities that have to do with development as our parents prohibit us from attending. If allowed, we have to explain to our parents why we need to attend these activities and how they will benefit us. If there are no immediate benefits we are not allowed to attend,” said Selinah Dube.

She further said, “Our biological build has contributed to us being prohibited to attend meetings as we are viewed as the vulnerable group that will fall prey to men and may later bear the consequences of unwanted pregnancy.”

Some young women sited lack of confidence resulting from both lack of exposure and lower levels of education as reasons why they choose to remain quiet in some activities they attend.

“It is difficult for some of us to articulate eloquently hence we choose to remain quiet for fear of being judged. Even if we attend these forums we leave without contributing,” said Nothando Ncube

With regards to elections, the young women highlighted that their lives are mainly confined to the private sphere and as such, national processes such as elections have not been a priority to them. A number of them showed lack of understanding on the relevance of taking part in elections to their day to day lives. However, after the discussions, the young women indicated that they now understood the importance of actively participating in making decisions that affect their lives. They also expressed interest in registering to exercise their right to vote.

“Elections have not been a priority for us as most of us are not into politics. We hardly make decisions even on issues at home we always depend on our parents to make decisions for us. Today has been a learning curve for me because I know that for things to go accordingly I have to participate in national processes and choose leaders who will represent us effectively,” said Lieza Dube.

This meeting was held as part of the Young Women study circles, an initiative by NYDT which seek to increase young women’s participation through creating safe spaces from them to interact without intimidation from their male counterparts.